East Lansing, Mich.--The third seeded Iowa Hawkeyes begun their Big Ten Championship competition by squaring off against the sixth-seed Purdue Boilermakers. Purdue advanced to the quarterfinals after a 4-0 victory over No. 11 Minnesota on Thursday. The Boilers defeated the Hawks, 5-2, on the regular season's final day.
The Hawkeyes took an early advantage on the strength of victories at the first two doubles courts. Meg Racette and Mili Veselinovic earned the first victory for Iowa by downing Shawna Zuccarini and Lara Burgarello, 8-2, at first singles. On the second court, Anastasia Zhukova and Hilary Tyler beat Purdue's Brooke Beier and Hala Sufi, 8-2. The third match was abandoned with Purdue's Stephanie Wooten and Alyssa Rodriguez leading, 5-3. With the two doubles victories, Iowa moved into the singles matches with a 1-0.
After last weekends' upset loss, the Hawkeyes came out of the singles gate ready for the Boilermakers. Meg Racette started the Iowa scoring at first singles with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Hala Sufi. Hawkeye Anastasia Zhukova followed closely with a 6-2, 6-4 win at third singles over Shawna Zuccarini. The match was capped by a 6-4, 6-1 victory at two by Hillary Mintz over Boilermaker Stephanie Wooten. The doubles point proved to be very valuable for the Hawkeyes, as the abandoned matches were all in favor of Purdue. Fourth singles at 6-4, 0-2, fifth 6-1, 5-3, and sixth singles was 6-1, 4-4.
The Hawkeyes advance to meet seventh seeded Michigan at 12:00 p.m. ET on Saturday. When the two teams met earlier in the season, Michigan defeated Iowa 6-1. All match times are subject to change based on weather. Log onto BigTen.org throughout the 2005 Women's Tennis Championship for up-to-date scores, updates, and results.
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